Economic growth slows to 0.3%

cepheus

UK GDP grew by 0.3 % in Q1, way below expectations of 0.6%. This is what the Tories feared since the 'economic recovery' is the cornerstone of the parties agenda. This can't help their election prospects.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32493745

kabayiri

Hardly surprising given that we are anchored alongside a relatively moribund Eurozone.

Did we think it wouldn't impact our companies?

CLAPTON

cepheus wrote: »

UK GDP grew by 0.3 % in Q1, way below expectations of 0.6%. This is what the Tories feared since the 'economic recovery' is the cornerstone of the parties agenda. This can't help their election prospects.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32493745

good to see that the year on year growth was 2.4% ...one of the highest in Europe

The ONS said the economy was 2.4% larger than the same period a year earlier.

padington

CLAPTON wrote: »

good to see that the year on year growth was 2.4% ...one of the highest in Europe

The rest of Europe hasn't desperately managed to stoke its house prices as a quick fix causing deap inequality of opportunity which might last generations.

I dare say it was the right thing to try and do but whether it was worth it given the tiny benefits gained in the end, I'm not so sure.

CLAPTON

padington wrote: »

The rest of Europe hasn't desperately managed to stoke its house prices as a quick fix causing deap inequality of opportunity which might last generations.

I dare say it was the right thing to try and do but whether it was worth it given the tiny benefits gained in the end, I'm not so sure.

what's economic growth of 2.4% got to do with houses prices?

but on the subject however, try learning a little about Irish and Spanish house prices

and of course reflect that if there were 2-3 million less people in the UK, the the houses prices would be much lower and the housing standards of the people would be much higher

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

padington wrote: »

I dare say it was the right thing to try and do but whether it was worth it given the tiny benefits gained in the end, I'm not so sure.

2.4% annual growth may sound 'tiny' but that equates to many hundreds of thousands of people getting a job as unemployment falls.

There can be no doubt that for them it was absolutely 'worth it'.

fordcapri2000

So many have been clever enough to know that this "economic recovery" was nothing of the sort, it was just a QE paid for debt ridden debacle that only a half dozen regular MSE posters were willing to believe.

I never thought we had a recession, said it for ages now while constantly being put down by the usual suspects. The REAL recession is yet to come, and this time we have no ammo to fight it off, low historical interest rates and debt write off/forgiveness is no longer an option.

Anyone with an ounce of commonsense and outside this board knew this was a rigged and false economy that was inevitably going to collapse.

Still!

We have 0.3% growth after a limp couple of years of heavily paid for moderate growth, that's enough I say to keep the apologists and deniers in MSE Property & Debate posts for a little longer :-)

kabayiri

It just shows how challenging it still is for companies. I will take growth over a stagnant economy every time. A deflationary period is bad for pretty much everyone, even though it may seem good news that the new car you have been considering could be cheaper in 6 months.

stator

Guess the PPI refunds are running out. The "recovery" has been fueled by nothing but consumer spending. There has been no significant rise in real manufacturing or productivity. We kid ourselves if we think we are doing better than the Eurozone.

tincans6

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

2.4% annual growth may sound 'tiny' but that equates to many hundreds of thousands of people getting a job as unemployment falls.

There can be no doubt that for them it was absolutely 'worth it'.

It's pretty well established that employment (or un) is a lagging indicator.

I'd never take a huge amount of notice of a single quarters growth, but it frankly laughable to try and spin this into good news.

Its particularly disappointing that industrial production fell as did construction by quite some way.

Who could be forgiven for thinking that it looks very much like a credit / housing fueled recovery that does little to address the UK long standing problems regardless of which political party is in power.

Low productivity, too much debt, more imports than exports, crumbling infrastructure - and governments who continually cut investment spending rather than say pension spending as its the easy option.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

As long as house price are going up though, right ?

kabayiri

I was hoping that fracking would generate a measure of energy security and attract some industry back to these shores, just as it has in the US.

The depressed oil prices and American plans to become a big LPG export player might derail these hopes.

It's obviously going to be challenging. Talking about loose anti-Austerity policies sounds even more pie in the sky.